Emre Gokalp is an award-winning Turkish-British classical guitarist based in London. David Russell described him as “a beautiful player with a smooth and agile technique that allows him to express his musical ideas fully, playing with a beautiful tone and shaping the music with elegance and imagination.”

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Emre has won top prizes in several international competitions, including the 1st International Guitar Competition of the Paris Guitar Foundation, the 2nd Classical Guitar Competition ''de la Semaine Musicale en Forêt d’Orléans'' in France, the 1st Balkan Festival and Guitar Competition, the 8th International Festival and Competition for Classical Guitar Interpretation in Bulgaria, and the 3rd Antonio Lauro Classical Guitar Competition in Turkey, among many others. 

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Emre has performed and taught at major international guitar festivals and competitions, including the Parkening International Guitar Competition in the USA, the Machynlleth Music Festival in the UK, the Marku Guitar Competition in Albania as a jury member, the 11th Guitar Meeting at Bilkent University in Turkey, and HASS Guitar Fest in Armenia. He made his London debut performing Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with the London GALA Orchestra under the baton of Stephen Ellery and has been regularly invited to perform in concerts curated by the renowned pianist Julius Drake.

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He studied with leading guitarists and pedagogues, including Prof. Ahmet Kanneci at Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory in Turkey and Miguel Trápaga Sánchez at the Real Conservatorio de Música de Madrid in Spain. He has also taken part in masterclasses with distinguished artists such as Alirio Díaz, Julian Byzantine, Tilman Hoppstock, Pavel Steidel, and Gerhard Reichenbach.

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Thanks to his generous scholarship from the Borusan Kocabıyık Foundation, Emre completed his Master of Arts degree with Distinction at the Royal Academy of Music in 2014, where he studied with Michael Lewin, David Russell, Fábio Zanon, Stephen Goss, and Timothy Walker. Upon graduation, he was awarded the DipRAM and the Frank Britton Prize for general and outstanding achievement.

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He is currently pursuing a PhD in Music at the University of Surrey under the supervision of Professor Stephen Goss.